Monday, March 19, 2012

Athletics: McCambridge makes Marathon A standard

Maria McCambridge ran a time of 2:36.37 this morning at the Rome
Marathon - inside the A qualifying mark off 2 hours 37 minutes for
London 2012. Maria becomes the third Irish women to make the marathon
qualifying mark - and like Linda Byrne and Ava Hutchinson is a product
of the Dundum South Dublin club, although McCambridge, currently based
in Donegal with husband Gary Crossan, currently runs in the Letterkenny
colours.
After giving birth to son Dylan and a disappointing run
in the Dublin Marathon last October, McCambridge went back to basics.
She fine-tuned her training with a 33 min 7 sec time behind Linda Byrne
at the Enniscorthy 10km last month and then a new course record of 54
mins 48 secs at the Ballycotton '10'.
In Rome, she stuck to a
pace of around 5 mins 55 secs per mile (or 3 mins 40 per km) from the
start, going through 5km in 18.23, then 10km in 36. 43 and 15km in
55.13. Her half marathon time of 1:17.37 meant she was well within her
target, and she continued to churn out even paced miles until the final
10km or so when - like many others in the race - she slowed down, with
her 35km split 18.51 and her next 5km slower again at 19.14.
By
then however with only 2km to go, McCambridge knew she could break 2
hours 237 minutes as planned. This she did, finishing ninth woman and
second European in a race dominated by Africans. First woman was Hellen
Jemaiyo Kimutai from Kenya in 2:31.11, with Ashete D. Bekele of
Ethiopia a close second; there were six Ethiopians in the top 10.
McCambridge's
time is close to the 2:26.23 run by Linda Byrne in the Dublin Marathon
last October; fastest of the three qualifiers is Ava Hutchinson with a
time of 2:35:33.